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Tarragon Vinegar
Gather the tarragon just before it blossoms, strip it from the larger stalks and put it into small stone jars or wide-necked bottle; and in doing this twist the branches, bruising the leaves. Pour over it vinegar enough to cover; let it stand two months or longer, pour off, strain, and put into small dry bottles, cork well and use as sauce for meats.
A straightforward cold infusion that still works exactly as written; the only real variables are the strength of the vinegar and how long you leave it.
- Pick before floweringTarragon's essential oils peak in the leaves just before it sets flower, after which the plant puts its energy into blossom and the leaf turns coarse and slightly bitter. Cut in the morning once dew has dried and use French tarragon, not the near-flavourless Russian type sold under the same name.
- Bruising is the pointTwisting the branches ruptures the leaf cells so the vinegar can pull out the anise-scented oils. Do it as you pack the jar rather than in advance, so nothing is lost to the air.
- Which vinegarThe recipe does not say. White wine vinegar lets the tarragon show most clearly; cider vinegar also works, though the flavour is less clean, and it was the vinegar most commonly to hand in American households of the period. Use something labelled 5 percent acidity, which is standard for bottled vinegar and is what keeps the infusion stable.
- Two months is generousThe book asks for two months or longer. Three to four weeks in a cool dark cupboard gives a fully flavoured vinegar, and longer steeping mainly darkens the herb rather than adding strength. Taste at three weeks.
- Vessels"Small stone jars" means stoneware crocks; any glass jar does the same job. Avoid metal lids in direct contact with the vinegar, which will corrode and taint the batch. Line the cap with plastic wrap or use a plastic-lined closure.
- Keep the herb submergedLeaves poking above the surface will discolour and can go slimy. Weight them down or top up with vinegar so everything stays covered.
- Straining and bottlingStrain through a coffee filter or two layers of muslin for a clear result, then bottle in scalded, thoroughly dry bottles. A single fresh sprig dropped in for looks will keep steeping and eventually turn brown; a decorative sprig is fine, but expect it to fade.
- Yield and useA quart of vinegar over a packed cup or so of leaves gives roughly a quart back. It keeps a year in a cool dark place. Beyond "sauce for meats," it is the acid in béarnaise and the backbone of a mustard vinaigrette for chicken or fish.
Tarragon vinegar was one of the standard flavoured vinegars of the nineteenth-century larder, alongside chilli, celery and horseradish. Its French associations are older than the book: estragon was long the herb of the Paris kitchen, and the vinegar carried that flavour into households where fresh tarragon was seasonal at best and the dried leaf a poor substitute. Buckeye Cookery, compiled in Ohio and first published in 1876 as Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, was aimed squarely at women running a house without shops full of prepared condiments, and a two-month infusion made in high summer was simply how a cook secured a flavour for the winter table.